The New Girl
by FlyingZebra
Summary: Gajeel has never been one for making friends, and is now beginning his second year of high school. He is used to being ignored or being greeted by an apology for no reason, however when he meets the apparently new girl Levy he begins to find her curious, and fun to tease. Although he's mostly looking forward to the school's magic tournament at the end of the year!
1. The new girl

Gale fanfiction

Chapter 1

The new girl

_**Just a note before you get reading, I'm setting this like a Japanese school, so they're in their second year of high school so this is like Year 11 for those who are English. Not sure about Americans and for anyone else sorry if it's unclear, but they'll be around 16-17! But please enjoy!**_

He was sick of school. The Monday to Friday routine of getting up (at a stupidly early time), getting changed, heading to school, learning crap, then coming home. It wasted precious time for the high school student Gajeel Redfox. He needed those six hours of the day for other things such as sleeping, and working out at the local gym, as well as taking care of his cat.

So today, at the start of the second year of high school things would change. The summer holidays had ended and Gajeel couldn't be more pissed off that he was going back to school. If it wasn't for the law that they _had _to go then he would bunk off every day. But here he was, putting his familiar bandana on – ready to leave. He was ready to plant his iron clubs into the school and just destroy it to get away, not like he'd ever get away with it though.  
He grabbed his school bag from the table in the hallway; he lived on his own because his parents worked abroad. So it was fairly easy to just get up and leave without them nagging him on what to do. Which also meant his house was a fair mess.

Gajeel looked down at his uniform and went through a mental list of what he needed and what he had on. Pants, White Shirt, Yellow jumper, Tie, Black shoes, Bandana, bag... he nodded to himself as he made sure he had everything.

Halfway out the door Gajeel shouted up the stairs to his cat. "See ya Lily, I put food out for ya!" And with that he was out the house and on his way to Fairy Tail High. To clarify it was a school for mages, as mages were in a small population in the world there were few schools made for mages. It's one of the reasons why mages tend to live around the same area – just to get to a school that will have them. It seems that the world hadn't taken well to people like Gajeel so they casually ruled them out from certain places.

The walk to school was always mundane; he walked through the back route, where no one from his school really lived so it was always a lonely one too. Gajeel turned a corner and spotted a can, so he kicked it with all his force – just to get the day started.

"OW!" A squeal came from around the corner and Gajeel cursed under his breath. Dammit, he didn't need this kind of trouble in a morning, he was too tired. He spotted blue hair first, then a familiar face.

"Oh Juvia, what're you doin' here? You live right next to the school in the girl's dorm!" Gajeel sighed to himself, his only friend in the school – Juvia Lockser always did this, ever since middle school. On the first day she would always make sure Gajeel hadn't run off and not bothered to come to school. Juvia was quite a powerful water mage and did well to fend for herself. To Gajeel she was like an annoying older sister, who as well as that was the only one willing to talk to him. Apparently he looked scary, and he was usually greeted with people moving out the way and apologising.

"J-Juvia came to check you were going to school... Juvia did not think she would anger Gajeel-kun _that_ much..." She replied shyly, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh right, sorry. Well off you go Rain woman, I 'ain't walking to school with you." Juvia took that as a dismissal and nodded while trailing off down the hill in the direction of the school. He took a different path and savoured the peace while he could. Gajeel did realise what he was doing by talking to her like that as well as other people, he knew he was alienating them; but to be honest he didn't really care.  
He wasn't the kind of guy to get close to people, and didn't care for friendships because from his knowledge they never ended well, or never lasted. He could live without them, because he was all he needed, as well as his cat.

He turned his final corner and came to the wall that was at the front of the school, tons of other mage students were flooding into the school through the gates. People were all walking in with their friends, talking and laughing. Probably talking about whatever fun activities they got up to in the summer holidays. Gajeel just shrugged them off and made his way into school. He got the odd look off of his old classmates, all silently judging him all over again.

Students gathered around a board in front of the school's entrance as they looked for what classes they were in. As soon as they spotted the moody looking Gajeel they quickly parted, as if he were frickin' Jesus and the red sea. He took the opportunity and walked through the path made for him. His red eyes scanned for the class he was in, and just for the hell of it checked if Juvia was in there too.

Class list . – 1B

-Natsu Dragneel -Levy McGarden -Gray Fullbuster  
-Juvia Lockser -Daisuke Lee -...  
-Gajeel Redfox -Lucy Heartfilia -...  
-Yuki Lowe -Mirajane Strauss -...

He waltzed away from the board casually; kind of relieved Juvia would be in his class. People stared at him as he walked past, and just for fun he gave some of them a death glare and they, as expected backed away in fright.

His eyes fell on to a small girl, in fact make that _very_ small compared to Gajeel's height. She had light wavy blue hair taken off of her face by a black headband decorated with a white flower. She indeed was small and nerdy looking, but was admittedly cute. The thing that most surprised him was that she looked at him. Right at him with her big hazel eyes – without hesitation. He glared back at her but she didn't stir. This girl had guts... wait but why did she? Why wasn't she scared like everyone else?

"What're you lookin' at, shrimp?" He questioned her, trying to see how far her limit would go. But she didn't flinch at his comment, but seemed to be bothered by the little nickname he added at the end. This would be fun... but he hadn't seen her around last year, maybe she was a first year.

"Nothing, you're the one who looked at me." She replied, before breaking off the stare and making her way towards the board to check her classes. Gajeel could only stare at the back of her blue head in disbelief... she... she spoke to him. And it wasn't a word of apology either! He didn't know why but he felt different, he felt... something he didn't know what it was. It was something different than when he was with Juvia. This little shrimp was different.

The silence broke as he walked slowly away and the people crowding around the board starting talking and gossiping about what had just happened. Gajeel didn't really care for their gossiping, he found it pointless.

He reached his new homeroom for the year and made himself comfortable in his usual seat at the back. He could've prayed to not have a seating plan this year, thank goodness for him last year their homeroom teacher didn't care for seating plans and Gajeel got his preferred seat at the back right of the room, right next to the window-away from the majority of the class.

The rest of the class began walking in, and taking random seats waiting for their new homeroom teacher. He spotted Juvia walking in, talking to a guy he'd never seen before; although by the look on Juvia's face he seemed nice enough. They both took a seat at the front together. After that a pink haired boy walked in with a blonde girl under his arm, the blonde seemed to be having a fun time having a go at the guy who didn't seem to be sorry for whatever he had done. He just gave her a grin despite the royal telling off he was receiving.

To his surprise the pink haired guy seemed to pay attention to Gajeel as he noticed him sitting in the back of the room, he took his arm from around the girl and made his way towards Gajeel. He prepared himself for whatever was coming. Probably a bombardment of questions about why people found him creepy. That was usually what people like him asked.

"You're Gajeel right?" He grinned happily, Gajeel paid him no mind and looked out of the window. He wasn't in the mood for people like him – people who were too happy for their own good. Plus... for some reason he couldn't get his mind off of that girl. Whoever she was.  
"Oi, I asked you a question!" That ticked him off, Gajeel turned to him who now had one of his hands planted firmly on his desk and the other held up bearing a fist of flames. _Fire magic. _Gajeel just glared at him and the tension in the air seemed to rise.

"Yeah I'm Gajeel, what's it to you _Salamander._" He snarled, now newly christened Salamander didn't seem bothered by the name and stayed put.

"Actually it's Natsu and I was only asking. 'Ain't any need to get angry." He snarled back, whoever this guy was he didn't like him. There was no way they would get along at any point in the future. The tension stayed.

"Natsu!" A girly voice piped up from the other side of the classroom, his girlfriend had taken a seat and was patting her left hand on the seat beside her; beckoning for him to sit. The fire burning in his hands dissipated quickly and their stare broke apart.

"Comin' Luce." With that he gave Gajeel one last glance and took his seat next to the apparently named Lucy. He put his attention back to the courtyard outside; life was going to be a pain in school. He could tell – especially with that guy in the class. Hopefully no one would be brave enough to sit next to him... no one ever was.  
His skin crawled as the noise of a chair being scraped across the floor was hitting his ears like nails on a chalkboard. His eyes widened in surprise as he realised the noise was coming from beside him... and what was even more strange was that there were seats spare as well; and someone had chosen to sit beside him.

He slowly looked to the seat on his right and to his surprise found a small blue haired shrimp sat pristinely with books placed out infront of her and her attention fully to the front. So she was in his year after all... how had he not noticed her last year? Was he that unobservant to not see such... such a cute girl. It made him wonder what kind of magic she had, it was probably something puny like her.

He snapped his attention to the front as what he presumed was their new homeroom teacher walked in. He was small, even smaller than the blue shrimp sat next to him. He looked really old, Gajeel was seriously thinking about when this guy should've retired, but he seemed to be capable enough of walking by himself. It made him want to laugh; it would be easy to mess around with a teacher like him being old and fragile. _This year might be looking up_, he thought while glancing at the girl next to him.

Everyone settled down into a random seat, and waited for the old man to start.

"Hello Brats, my name's Makarov. Call me teacher or Master. I prefer Master." He began while writing 'Makarov' on the board – to the bit he could reach anyways. He'd never met a teacher who wanted them to call him 'Master' apart from his old homeroom teacher in Phantom Lord Middle school. While he wrote more on the board he took a glance to the shrimp on his right. She seemed engrossed in a thick book bound in a velvet red cover, he watched her hazel eyes move at an immense speed from left to right. He'd never seen someone so concentrated on reading before.

The hazel eyes met his for the second time that day, which made Gajeel look away from her pretty face. _Crap. _Why was he even looking at her anyways? He decided it was stupid to look shy, so he faced her again and unexpectedly she was still looking at him. So he grinned, showing his sharp fanged teeth which seemed to become sharp after years of dragon slayer magic. Now that he thought about it, didn't Salamander have sharp teeth?

The blue haired mage rolled her eyes at Gajeel and drew her attention back to the book. She was interesting, usually he would get an apology for being a distraction or an apology for looking at him. Just some sort of apology every single time. It made him curious as to what made her not bothered about his appearance. Gajeel just chuckled at the hot headed mage, he couldn't help but just laugh.

"Find something funny do we?" Said Makarov piping up at the front, he wasn't surprised that this would happen on the first day back; and by this he meant making an adversary out of his homeroom teacher.

"Yeah, although I 'ain't laughing at you." Gajeel talked back, pushing his luck with his teacher. If he was to have fun this year then the bookworm next to him wouldn't be enough. This was his way of having fun, and it was his method for having fun every year in school. Apart from _their_ kind of sports day, which was the most fun of all. It was trials for the students of the school to test their magic and eventually come out into a battle between the best mages that year. It was one of the things he looked forward to every year.

"Is that so, what do you find so funny then, Brat?" The man said, with the lines on his forehead deepening in irritation.

"This shrimp 'ere' He said simply, pointing his finger to his right. Gajeel could see her look at him in shock from the corner of his eye. It made him laugh even more, bet she hadn't actually expected him to say he was laughing at her.

"Is Miss McGarden _that_ amusing?" Master questioned him, looking at Gajeel in all seriousness; but before he could respond he turned around and finished writing the timetable for the day. "This also brings me to something else I was meaning to do." He turned around a looked to the so called 'Miss McGarden' and beckoned her to stand.

She stood up looking pristine and smart with just her posture, he was so curious about this girl. He looked at the board as the Master wrote something else.

'Levy McGarden'

"Everyone this is Fairy Tail's new student Levy, please treat her kindly and give her a Fairy Tail welcome – you may sit." The bookworm did so and brought her attention back to her book, while Gajeel mulled over on her name. Saying it a few times in his head. Levy. It was fitting enough, but he still liked the names he had given her. Well at least this explained why he hadn't seen her before in school he was fond of the fact that she looked so innocent all the time but carried an attitude that could match his. She was interesting.

The lesson began as the bell struck for nine, and their first day back couldn't have been going any slower. He looked from the window to his right and back a few times while devising a plan... or more of a strategy on how to get on her nerves. He needed to have some fun otherwise he could've sworn he'd die of boredom.

He picked up his pen and waited until their teacher Makarov had turned to the board, and proceeded to poke Levy's arm with it. However he didn't get the reaction he was expecting, as she straight out ignored him and continued to write stuff down. Gajeel pouted with annoyance, no one had ever ignored him like that before apart from his parents who had more than enough time to get used to his ways.

After another five minutes went by and he poked her again and this time managed to get a small side glance of irritation and then that was it she was back to writing notes down like a good little mage. Gajeel realised it wouldn't work so tried to talk to her instead.

"Hey Bookworm, so what magic do ya use?" He whispered to her leaning in so that she could hear him over their homeroom teacher's booming voice. She slowly turned towards him with their faces almost touching. She gasped at the closeness and her face became a deep red in embarrassment, she moved her torso back away from Gajeel's face to widen the gap between them. He was so close he could have kissed her... wait what?

"Wh-what does it matter to you?" She whispered back just as quiet as Gajeel; trying to compose herself now that Gajeel had moved back to his seat properly she sat straight like before trying to make an effort to look like she was paying attention and not being distracted by the dragon slayer.

"Just curious, you not gonna tell me?" Gajeel grinned looking at the flustered blue haired mage. He surprised himself in actually wanting to know what magic she used. It was probably something really child like, this shrimp didn't look like she could do much damage to an opponent – not with physical strength anyways.

"It's no concern of yours anyways, now leave me alone." Levy scoffed, then moving slightly towards her right on her chair to make an effort to sit further away from him. Gajeel narrowed his red eyes trying to figure her out. He was shocked by how she didn't apologise to him for no reason but now she's even carrying conversations with him without being afraid. He didn't understand her... and he honestly liked it.

He left her alone after that and stared out of the window for the next two hours watching other students walking by now and again in pairs talking to each other. He wondered now and again what it would be like to have a proper friend that you spent time with and had fun with. Even when he was younger he hadn't been very social with other kids, they all thought he was a freak anyway so he didn't care because he didn't want to be friends with people who thought he was a freak. But now he was in a school full of mages he still didn't want to make friends – he always thought it just became a normal thing from a young age.

After his morning lessons lunch finally arrived, he headed straight out of the classroom door to get a snooze under a tree. He desperately wanted to sleep throughout the whole morning, the day was warm and it was perfect to sleep. Gajeel made his way out of the school into a courtyard and made his way up to the fence that separated the school from the path and the road with cars passing by. There was a large tree that provided more than enough shade to keep cool. So Gajeel made himself comfy on the grass beneath it with his hands propped up behind his head he slowly fell asleep.

"Mr. Redfox" Echoed in his mind, he ignored it but it called him again until he eventually realised he was sleeping and that someone was calling his name. He opened his eyes groggily, he felt tired and moody and the sight of a teachers face looming over him didn't exactly help either. Gajeel propped himself up into a sitting position on the grass and just stared at the teacher waiting for whatever excuse they had for waking him up.

"If you're not _too_ busy, could you take these to the library and hand them in at the desk for me?" The tall lanky man handed him a pile of around 15 books and before Gajeel could even protest the teacher was off walking in the other direction. Dammit, couldn't even get a decent nap; it must have still been lunch considering the teacher hadn't had a go at him for sleeping. But now that Gajeel had comprehended what he had asked him to do, he wasn't even sure whether he knew where the library was in this school. He hadn't been in the year he had been at the school.

Gajeel sighed and picked up his bag making his way towards the school, once he got inside he dodged other mages with the large stack of books making an attempt to find the library. To his relief he turned a corner to find a large sign over a doorway.

'Library'.

_Bingo. _Gajeel said to himself, adjusting the books that began to slip and slide on the pile he carried. He cursed the teacher under his breath for making him do this. Why couldn't he have gotten some little nerd to carry them? Maybe he could've found that Levy girl, she seemed to like books.

He budged open the door with his back and made his way towards a desk that had no one sitting behind it, Gajeel slammed the books down carelessly onto the desk taking a moment for the hell of it to see if anyone was actually going to show up. However no one seemed to be in charge of the library so he left the books and made his way out of the library.

"Uhm 'xcuse me?" A small voice came from back inside the library, Gajeel rolled his eyes in all the effort this was taking, he didn't even know that teacher that gave him the books either. Gajeel turned back into the library to stand by the desk again. He stiffened as he spotted Levy McGarden behind the desk sorting the books out he had just set onto the desk. The bookworm looked up at him and stiffened too, until it became an awkward silence as they both took each other in.

"Why're you here?" Gajeel asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence, why was she everywhere today? Well it wasn't that surprising that someone who loved books was helping out in the library on her first day in the school.

"I'm helping, but more to the point what are you doing here? You don't really look like the type to be interested in books." She shot back, Gajeel just stared at her as he felt the tension in the air. As much as it didn't look like it Gajeel was having so much fun. He always seemed to talking to the mage with the wild blue hair and deep hazel eyes. He found himself wanting her to be his friend.

"Some teacher dumped some books on me, that's all – and you're right I despise books. I think they're a waste of time. Although you seem to have a strong love for them, don't ya? Bookworm." He responded, perching himself on the edge of the desk teasing her to his heart's content. She pouted her lip and almost scrunched her face up with sheer irritation which made Gajeel laugh a little.

"You're cute Shrimp." He said laughing at her 'annoyed face' that she made. But it seems as he said that, her face relaxed and she surprisingly wore a small smile on her cute face. Gajeel stopped laughing and began to wonder what he had done to make her do that. But he wasn't exactly complaining about how beautiful she looked when she smiled.

_**There it is everyone! The beginning of my second story! I had the urge to write about these two in high school so I did :P I hope you'll all enjoy this one and I believe this one is going to be perhaps a lot longer than my first one! I'm excited for it, and I'm also working on another GaLe story too xD I'm awful for this ship!**_

_**Anyways please leave a review and whatnot because I love reading them and receiving your feedback! Thanks again! **_


	2. A friend

Chapter 2

A friend.

She didn't know why she sat next to him. That night it still swirled around her head, and Levy didn't know what to think about it. She was always so used to just _knowing_. From the amount of books she read she had gained much more knowledge than the average 16 year old, but from that day she had never experienced so many times of being unsure. It was his fault, which is the conclusion she had come to.

After moving from across the country because her school shut down Levy hadn't found anyone to talk to, and her parents didn't really like to listen to her either. She was born to non magic using parents, so they were pretty closed off from Levy. In a way she liked the space they gave her and the freedom... it just hurt to think that it was because they didn't care.

However meeting Gajeel made her feel more confident, it was something about him that made her challenge who she was, and to talk to someone like him you had to bring all of yourself to the front and fight him just to talk. Levy did know in fact why she sat next to Gajeel on her first day; it was because she had made a pact with herself to sit next to the person she first spoke to in her homeroom. With Gajeel, she didn't really want to... but at the same time she wanted to sit down and so she did.

When they met in the library they talked for the rest of lunch, she was actually supposed to be putting books back onto the shelves in the hardly used library but found herself losing track of time just talking to him. It was true that he was possibly the most irritating human being she had ever met, and had an uncomfortably good talent for pushing her buttons; but he somehow managed to make her feel happy... like a perfect balance of meanness and kindness.

She thought upon it all morning for her fourth day in her new school, she checked herself over in the mirror that hung pristinely on the wall, and shone cleanly. Levy tightened her bow tied around her neck slightly and moved a blue curl into place. She pulled both socks up over the knee as far as they would go to secure them in place and slipped on her black shoes, ready to leave.

The blue haired mage didn't bother alerting her parents she was leaving, because it wasn't like they cared. They were both upstairs asleep completely oblivious of her existence at the moment, but despite this Levy carefully slid the front door across so as not to make too much noise, and made her way to school.

Even though apparently there was lots of other mage students living around the school she never encountered any on the way to school, perhaps it was because they lived behind the school and most lived near the front side. Levy walked down a small slope between two small houses, then down a path that had rows of small houses and an equally small road on her right. Usually she would keep walking straight to get to the school but Levy saw a small opening between two houses and decided to take a small detour to school.

She came out into an opening of houses facing each other; some of them were small ramen shops that were closed because it was too early to open. Others were just small homes and some were the two floor blocks of perhaps four apartments. She followed the path down towards her school and the road became narrower. It was quiet for a morning; usually people would be on their way to work around this hour.

The path came to an end and the only viewable exit was a thin bike lane so she followed it and came out onto a path lined with trees that let in small patches of sunlight through their leaves. It was beautiful. Some bushes underneath the trees blossomed with large purple flowers with a lighter purple on the tips of the petals. Levy couldn't help but stand there and admire them.

"What you doin' here shrimp?" A booming voice and a wack on the shoulder was enough to put her into a cardiac arrest but she managed to compose herself as she turned to see Gajeel looming over her like a giant and a... well a shrimp. Gajeel grinned at her, probably amused that he had scared her without intending to. "Didn't know you walked this way." He laughed and violently put his hand on her shoulder again. Levy groaned with the pain that hit her shoulder and just scowled at the studded face infront of her.

"I don't. I just walked a different way today." She snapped back quickly and proceeded to walk on without him, leaving the flower sadly not completely admired. She would have to come back and take it in completely some day. The blue haired mage heard Gajeel's thudding feet walking behind her, she could have sworn there was lead in his shoes as he walked.

"Why'd you take a different way?" Gajeel asked, still walking slightly behind her.

"I was curious." She replied quickly, it was impossible to have the last word with him in a conversation she had figured out in the past few days. At least whenever it was an argument; she watched him walk a little faster to come along side of her.

"About what?" He said looking at her with a confused face, as if he hadn't ever been curious at one point in his life. Levy, as an avid reader of fiction books loved to explore places she didn't know about. It always made her think that what if there was something around her that she had failed to notice because of her lack of effort to even adventure into places she wasn't used to. That's what made her turn left into a small road she had never been down before, instead of carrying on the way she was used to. However Gajeel was not a good surprise.

"About what other ways I could get to school." Levy said, adjusting the black leather bag hung from one shoulder as they pressed on towards school.

"Why?" Gajeel persisted, which made Levy almost curse herself for walking this way it made her wonder whether he was doing it on purpose or not. The mage couldn't be bothered any longer and so shrugged her shoulders to let him know that. They walked on further in a fairly uncomfortable silence. Gajeel stopped suddenly and Levy walked on a few steps before turning to face him.

"Why did you stop, are you alright?" Levy asked, afraid he might be feeling ill or something. Gajeel nodded to her and then pointed to a smaller path she hadn't seen before that went off from the one they walked on.

"I'm taking a detour" He said nonchalantly as he trailed off into the path shrouded in trees and other greenery. She just stared at the place where she last saw him with shock. That was possibly the rudest goodbye she had ever been a part of in her life.

"He left." She muttered to herself, finding herself being slightly disappointed that she wasn't in his company anymore. It made her annoyed at herself... what was it about him?

"You're welcome to join me, Shrimp" Gajeel's head suddenly popped from around the trees that blocked her from seeing the rest of him. He smiled his usual cocky grin like he owned the world. Levy couldn't help but smile back at him, finding herself actually happy he returned. Gajeel didn't wait for an answer and disappeared behind the trees again, this time Levy followed him before she could lose sight of him.

The blue haired mage came to the beginning of a small concrete path with small weeds breaking through the concrete, some decorated with colourful flowers. Small trees arched over the path and let through patches of sunlight between their green leaves and pure white flowers. Levy's sight also came to a mess of black hair, a yellow school jumper, white shirt and school pants. Gajeel couldn't have stood out more in such a place.

"Take your time, if we're lucky we can be late to school." Gajeel laughed at her, not even facing her as he talked. He propped both of his hands behind his head as he walked, tilting his head back to look above him. Levy marvelled at him, how was he so annoying and so provoking, and be this... charming? She couldn't work it out in her own head, but shouldn't she be able to? He was just a person after all... Levy stuck her tongue out to the back of the dragon slayer as her version of telling him to piss off.

Levy walked a little faster until she could walk alongside of him as they made their way to her new school, it took her a while to realise but bumping into Gajeel meant that he lived at the back of the school too. It made her wonder what kind of family he had.

"Gajeel, what's your home like?" She asked his cool being, her hazel eyes bright with curiosity. If she were to take a guess, she would first presume Gajeel's father was tough on him but at the same time would treat Gajeel as his pride and joy. Levy imagined his mother to be a kind woman, who tolerated his tough nature well and always tried to get his father to ease up on the pressure he laid on Gajeel's shoulders. Perhaps they owned a dog too, a large one that they could wrestle with – named Buck.

"My house is a mess; I live by myself with my cat. That's what it's like. What about you bookworm, I bet you live in a library, with posters of shirtless anime guys hung up all over the place, quiet girls like you are always into that shit." Just like that her presumption was shattered, was someone his age even allowed to live alone? It also surprised her that he owned a cat... he didn't seem like a cat person. Although cats are unsociable and most often rude so she supposed the description matched. Levy huffed aloud in irritation. Mostly because she practically did live in a library... well sort of, that's what her room was like anyway. It was full of bookshelves, she even sacrificed pieces of furniture to fit more bookshelves in and she only had her single bed, a desk and a small dresser (which also had books placed upon them).

"Guess I was wrong, and I do not have pictures of shirtless anime men on my walls. Sure I like books but..." She trailed off, trying to think of a stronger argument to fight back with but it failed to reach her. If she had jewel for every time she had gone home and _thought _about what she should've said to someone in an argument then she would truly be rich. It annoyed her how she could never find the right thing to say at the exact moment she wanted to say it... although from the books she had read when that actually happened, remorse and disaster inevitably followed. Gajeel laughed at her failure.

They walked on in silence, and Levy admired their surroundings more the further they walked into the path. She began to doubt if they were even going to school but it eventually came into sight, quicker than she realised. The bookworm took the odd glance up at the tough dragon slayer's face, he was admittedly handsome... not that she would ever tell him such a thing.

To her luck, students were still coming into the schools gates and she breathed out in relief that they weren't late because of her mindless dwindling earlier. They reached their shoe lockers Gajeel parted from Levy's side to the other side of the room to his shoe locker; Levy quickly changed her outdoor shoes into her school ones and began to walk towards Gajeel's locker.

"LEVVVYYY!" Two voices said in unison, she looked to her right into the school hallways to see two slim figures, both adorned with odd hair styles. One had spiked ginger hair and the other black hair with an odd flick of hair on top of his head. It instantly clicked in her head; it was Jet and Droy from her middle school, as well as the ones who were part of her first year of high school. She smiled happily back at them, happy to see familiar faces for once.

"Jet! Droy!" Levy replied with joy and ran towards them to embrace her friends; she was genuinely pleased to see them. It was a pleasant surprise; she didn't have a clue they were going to join her high school after their old one shut down. She broke off their hug and looked at them happily, bursting with questions.

"When did you both move here? Why did you both come to this school? I thought you were going down south?!" She asked them all at once, not caring for the amount of questions she was asking. Levy was so simply happy to see them; she would have to introduce them both to Gaje-

"Who are these guys Levy?" A voice came from her side, and at the same time and elbow was placed on top of her head, to act like something to lean on. She sighed, and to think for a moment that she could actually do something normal like make Jet, Droy and Gajeel acquaintances like regular people. She suffered in silence with the elbow that rested on her blue head.

"They're from my old school, this is Jet." She motioned to the tall lanky boy posed cockily to try and appear tough. "And this is Droy" Then moved her hand to the slightly chubbier figure next to him, now holding a leg of chicken in his left hand, and holding his school bag with his right. Levy turned to Gajeel and he just looked at them and snarled at them like a cat seeing a dog. Levy just rolled her eyes at him, and wacked him on his side.

"Wanna take me on do ya Shrimp?" Gajeel asked removing his elbow from her head and getting into a fighting stance by parting his legs and bringing his hands up to his chest level, having them tightened so that his knuckles became white, she could've sworn the piercing that decorate his body shined with anticipation.

"I can't take you on I'm just weak and small..." Levy felt a surge of self doubt and weakness flood through her mind like it did at times like this, she was a solid script mage but apart from that she felt she had no other strength other than that. Levy could tell Jet and Droy were surveying the situation in front of them, and could practically feel the aura they were emitting.

"Who are you?" Jet demanded as he stepped closer, trying to intimidate Gajeel with his tall figure, but it didn't stop Gajeel from staring right back at him. Gajeel completely blanked him and turned to Levy.

"Look just build up, you could take me on one day shorty!" He chuckled while patting her head, in an all too patronising manner.

"He's my friend Gajeel, now calm down Jet." She asked him calmly, he looked at her – most likely surprised to hear that Gajeel was her friend. Levy knew that despite the teasing Gajeel seemed like a nice person, he wasn't _that _horrible to her and sometimes it was actually quite amusing. Was she wrong to call him her friend?

"I'm your friend?" He asked her still blanking the other two like they didn't exist, she didn't think that Gajeel would be friendly with the other two at all from this moment on, she just felt it. But regarding Gajeel's question she believed they were friends, plus she seemed to be the only other person he talked to properly, apart from another girl in their class... Juvia? Maybe.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" She smiled happily; from the past few days she gathered he wasn't a very social person. Whenever she saw him at lunch he was always sleeping underneath the same tree, and he never talked to anyone else other than Levy now and again to tease her, and he was still asking what magic she used but no one she ever told had heard of 'solid script' and they always asked her to show her, which was quite complicated...

"Well because you're small and fragile, you gotta be tough to be my friend usually!" Gajeel laughed at her and tapped her on the head again, but this time it hit a nerve. Gajeel all this time never intended to become her friend in the first place. Levy felt her face scrunch up in annoyance and her lip pout; in that moment she disliked him, for everything he had done.

"S-Stupid!" She raised her hands one further in front of the other with her index and middle finger up right. Levy felt the familiar magic running through into her arms. "Solid Script; Iron!"

As the words escaped her mouth four large iron letters appeared above Gajeel's head that spelt out 'iron' and it proceeded to drop like a weight onto his head, she could feel the eyes of other students on her as she cast her magic at the dragon slayer. Levy turned to Jet and Droy as she heard the iron clang against his head.

"Shall we go?" She asked them, not facing Gajeel anymore trying to fight back the tears that were welling up in her eyes. Levy was hurt, she genuinely believed she had found a friend; after all he was the only one that had talked to her since she had gotten to the school. Levy walked on but Jet and Droy didn't move and their gazes were fixed on something. She followed their line of sight where Gajeel was. The solid script mage dropped her jaw in shock as Gajeel picked up her solid script off of the floor and opened his mouth to take a bite from it.

Levy just stared as Gajeel took bite after bite of her iron and crunched on it like it was a softened chocolate bar; all of the other students just stared in surprise, although one boy with pink hair stood their unaffected by the sight for some reason. The sight made Levy feel even more useless, she couldn't even harm him when she was mad at him, her chin shook as the tears welt up in her eyes once again and quietly fell down her face. Gajeel finished off the iron and wiped his mouth then looked at Levy, his red eyes widened at the tears streaming down her face. Levy quickly wiped them from her face and ran off into the school making her way into the homeroom.

_Stupid Gajeel._

Other students glanced at her as the tears still streamed down her face and her hazel eyes were probably surrounded by a ring of red now, sore from wiping the tears away. She didn't care, it's not like she knew any of them anyways. This was not how she was expecting her first week of school to go at all. In fact she expected to remain completely invisible like she was in most of the schools she went to, everyone knew her as the quiet girl who was always reading – Jet and Droy were the only ones to talk to her in the past.

She made it to her homeroom and crept to the back and sat in her seat with her head down resting on her small hand. With her face concealed she let the rest of her tears escape and fall onto the desk, she sobbed as quietly as she could; but it apparently didn't make a difference.

"Excuse me, are you alright?" Levy could only see the feet of the girl who had shown up at the side of her desk. Levy just nodded and wiped her face without her seeing, she really hoped she wouldn't have to make her show her red and most likely puffed up face.

"You don't seem it, don't worry whatever's wrong won't last forever... I'm Lucy by the way." Levy felt the kindness and concern in her voice; Levy slowly raised her face up to see Lucy.

The girl was beautiful; her blonde hair shone and stopped midway down her back. The girl had large brown eyes that were being pressed down by her furrowed thin brow. She wore the school uniform that all the girls adorned, white shirt, yellow jumper, blue and blacked striped bow and skirt. But she added something to it, a brown belt rested on her hips carrying a small pocket that hung golden and silver keys that shined in the sunlight the room let in. Celestial spirit magic, Levy had read multiple books on the magic once, it was a magic that looked truly beautiful to her.

"T-thank you... I'm Levy" She said introducing herself, calming down now. Lucy smiled back at her and laid her hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"If you ever need to talk to me, please do!"Lucy said with a friendly smile, returning back to her seat which was next to that pink haired boy she had seen earlier who was now taking his seat as well. That made two people in this school who had talked to her since she had gotten to Fairy Tail. Not that Gajeel counted any more.

THWAM.

Levy's whole body jumped in her seat as the classroom door slid open violently and slammed into the wall to stop itself from flying any further. Her head automatically looked to the door in curiosity, as did the rest of the class who had just taken their seats. Gajeel was at the door his forehead wrinkled with what looked like annoyance and concentration. Gajeel first looked at the eyes he seemed to have gathered in his direction.

"What you all lookin' at?" Gajeel snarled at them with so much anger his eyes might have well glowed with the crimson red that his eyes already were. They all immediately looked back at the front and left him to it. However Levy didn't turn around but kept her eyes on the guy that had made her cry just moments ago.

Gajeel walked towards her until he stood beside her right shoulder, he loomed over her even more than he usually did, now that she was sitting. While it was happening, she took a guess at what he was going to say. She came to three things, he would tell her she was just as weak for crying her eyes out, he would sarcastically say 'Thanks for the iron' and then pat her on the head, call her a shrimp and say that perhaps someday she might gain enough strength to bruise him slightly.

"Be my partner." Gajeel said, with complete seriousness. His arms were folded now and it seemed like more of a demand than a question. What did he mean by that?

"What?" Levy said, her voice still shaken from her crying.

"There's a magical tournament in the school at the end of the year and they allow partners. So be mine." He said, the stern tone still remaining in his voice. Why would he want her to be his partner if he thought she was 'weak and fragile' it made her be a little sceptical about whether it was a joke or not.

"I'm weak and small aren't I though? I'd hold you back..." She said staring down at her lap where she fiddled with her thumbs. If he was being serious, then it wasn't a good idea, especially if he wanted to win.

"No matter how small you are, I'll make you big." He said getting lower down and closer to her face, the tears flowed back and stayed on the corner of her eyes, and she felt the blood rush to her cheeks. Levy's lips were pulled at each end into a small smile and she nodded her small head letting her blue curls shake slightly.

"Mm." That decided it; and that's when the bell rang.

_**Thank you for reading my second chapter! I hope you're enjoying it so far, and I'll get working on Chapter 3 straight away – so close to the end of school now... well a month anyways! Then I'll be writing a lot more and updating a lot quicker!**_

_**Please review and whatnot, I appreciate it! **_

_**Next Chapter: Training and books.**_


	3. Training and books

Chapter 3

Training and Books

The dragon slayer took a glance at the silver watch he wore on the wrist of his left arm. 17:25. Gajeel sighed; he was going to be early – which would make him look eager. He slowed down his pace purposefully as he made his way towards his favourite ramen restaurant. It was a Saturday and the first week back at school had finished, and on that Friday they finished it ended in Gajeel inviting _her _to eat ramen and talk about the tournament at the end of the year; apparently Levy didn't know much about it.

The events of the week played back in his head, which also felt like it happened over the course of a year. He met someone who wasn't afraid to talk to him, he walked to school with her and that day he managed to upset her by unintentionally mocking her strength, met her over defensive lackeys and managed to gain a partner for the tournament itself which also seemed to make up for upsetting said girl earlier. Now he was about to eat his favourite ramen with her too.

Never in his life had he interacted with so many people his age, everyday he actually came home with interesting things to talk to his cat about.

Gajeel wasn't sure how but he managed to gain a friend, despite what he had thought about friendships not going well there was something that made him believe that this one would turn out well. Gajeel grabbed a small railing and made his way down a few steps before turning a corner to face his favourite ramen restaurant; he checked his watch once again. 17:30. Dead on time. Would that be odd, coming right on time? Gajeel pondered it in his head while standing outside the shop, looking at the doorway that hung two cloths from the top with symbols on each one. 17:31.

"Are you just going to stand out here?" A small voice asked him, his instincts jumped into place and he hesitated from forming his hand into an iron spike. He looked to his right to see messy blue hair, well suited to the bookworm who adorned them. She wore a small white dress with a doily pattern on the top, with a small brown belt that hugged her waist, with a matching pair of brown sandals on her just as small feet. Cute.  
It dawned on him that she had just arrived also, and had obviously just seen him staring at the place he thought she would already be in. Judging by her punctuality to lessons and her general attitude towards learning Gajeel had thought she would have been there at least five minutes early. Guess he was wrong, it seemed that throughout the week that his presumptions had been shattered while getting to know her. Levy kind of proved him that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover; and boy was Levy a _book_ a bloody hard one to read at that!

"No, I was just going in..."He tried to think of something sarcastic or patronising to add to the end but nothing came to him in his head, which made him presume he was tired because the majority of the time any and every insult or remark flooded into his head whenever he spoke to someone. She laughed at him and Gajeel just scowled back at her as they headed into the restaurant.

The familiar smell of noodles and meat met Gajeel's nose and boy was it wonderful, for some reason he realised over the years his nose was stronger than most, so when he smelt something... he _really _smelt it. Gajeel guessed it was something to do with his magic, but with moments like these he really appreciated it his mind was full with the smell of ramen and meat and... Passion Fruit?

Gajeel looked around, trying to pick out where the scent was coming from because it definitely wasn't the food. He looked at the people seated and sniffed strongly, but all he received off of them was a mix of vanilla and men's aftershave; then he turned to Levy who was now staring at him with an odd look. It was her. He slowly breathed in, trying not to make it obvious he was smelling her scent... which sounded weirder than it was.

Gajeel smirked, "You're wearing perfume" he said to Levy and he watched as a blush crept up into her cheeks. It was unbelievably easy to tease this girl, it made his grin widen.

"Passion Fruit to be exact..." He sniffed a little more. "And a hint of peach and vanilla" He said in a matter-of-fact tone. He watched as her eyes widened in surprise at his sense of smell and looked at him as if he'd gone mad.

"That's some sense of smell you have." Levy said, confirming his guess of her perfume. Gajeel patted her blue hair as they stood in the doorway still making no progress towards a table.

"I can smell _fear _too." He joked and grinned getting closer to her face and sniffing blatantly for effect, she squinted her eyes giving him a deadly look, not that she was scary in anyway.

"Well I'm not afraid, so good luck with that" She replied, remaining her calm self. How does she do that? A normal person would probably cower away and freak out that he could actually _smell _fear when it was only half true – he could smell their sweat when they were afraid. Levy remained with her 'scary' face.

He just laughed at her attempt to scare him and moved on to the side to get some food; Levy followed behind him.

They came up to the counter where a man stood wearing a Yukata preparing ramen ingredients behind their sight. His white hair shined underneath the multiple lights that hung from the ceiling. Gajeel recognised him as Elfman Strauss who had worked part time at the ramen shop ever since he and his sister's parent's passed away. Elfman looked up and acknowledged Gajeel was there and caught sight of Levy.

"With a woman this time Gajeel?" He said all too seriously, Gajeel just looked at Levy then back to Elfman and nodded, "That's a man." Gajeel was used to his over use of the word 'man' all too well however he could practically feel Levy's confusion as to what he had just said. Nothing he ever added 'man' to at the end never made sense or ever related to the actual topic they were on.

"Shio ramen for me Elfman" Gajeel asked, and then looked at Levy for her order.

"Oh, same please" She said meekly, standing next to the counter made him realise just how small she actually was, as she propped her arm up onto the top and rested her small head on top of it – she wasn't even leaning to get her elbow down to the level of the counter.

"Comin' up, Man!" He replied, disappearing into the back where the kitchen was. Gajeel took a seat by a table near to the counter and Levy moved to do the same... he suddenly felt a little awkward being out of school with her. Usually he just complained about school and taunted her because of it, but they weren't in that situation anymore.

"So would you mind explaining this tournament to me?" Levy asked, fiddling with the salt and pepper shakers in the centre of the table probably fidgeting with curiosity. Gajeel was surprised to hear that no one had told her about it when she was considering joining the school; he would have thought their head teacher would have said something about it but apparently not.

"Sure Shrimp" He said grinning, as she rolled her eyes at the use of her nickname. "The tournament is at the end of the school year, around a week before the school year ends. Every student entering is required to have a partner and throughout the week there are trials and they're slowly brought down in numbers to only eight teams meaning four battles then two until you have one team left – the winners."

Levy looked at him intently listening to every word he was saying, and nodding as he went. Her hazel eyes practically sparkled with concentration as she took in the words he was saying.

"Okay... uhm I've also been wondering about how you're going to go about... well 'making me big'?" She asked him, referring to the conversation that they had only a few days ago.

"_No matter how small you are, I'll make you big."_

"I guess we'll have to train, that's how anyone gets stronger isn't it?" He said seriously, glancing to his left as Elfman approached with two bowls of steaming ramen. Gajeel licked his lips in anticipation; he was so hungry it was unbelievable. Elfman placed the bowls in front of the two and bowed as to tell them to enjoy their meal. Gajeel nodded.

"Thank you." Levy said to Elfman who was now walking away, he turned to her and nodded and they both dug in. He could feel his stomach growling with approval of the food as he bit into a slice of pork that lay on top of the noodles.

"So, you eat something other than iron?" Levy asked, with a small smile on her face.

"Yeah, of course – can you make something other than iron with that magic of yours?" He said with a grin pulling on his lips, remembering the taste of her iron on his tongue. It was good actually for something that was made from someone else's magic. Solid Script. He'd never seen someone with that magic before and he found it curious, to think that she could make anything appear as a word made out of the very word she made appear. Now that he thought about it, it was very appropriate considering the amount she read that her magic had something to do with words. He looked at Levy who blushed at his question.

"Yes, I can make quite a few of other things with it actually. Would you like to eat that too?" She snapped back, glaring at him. Probably still feeling a little mad at him for that incident a few days earlier – how could she blame him though? How are you gonna hurt someone with their favourite food? Can't blame a man for eating food pretty much made for him even if it wasn't intended for his consumption...

"I prefer iron, but thanks" He said slurping up some more noodles finding this meeting becoming slightly awkward... he couldn't stop thinking that she was so utterly – adorable.

They ate some more in silence with the occasional glance to each other, making them both blush a little when their eyes met. When hazel met blood red. They sat with the background noise of others talking and food frying in the kitchen. Was it just Gajeel or was everyone sitting in that restaurant a couple? He looked around the room, another school girl and boy, a wife and husband, a couple and their child... and a definite couple, whose faces apparently were permanently conjoined. He felt the blush creep into his cheeks.

"You done?" Gajeel asked, not really bothered about whether she was actually done or not; he just wanted to get out of the place, despite an urge for seconds.

"Uhm, yeah." She replied. He looked at her bowl which was still half full. Levy was really stubborn and a pushover at some times. He rolled his eyes, placed some money onto the table and headed towards the door.

"Let's go"

They walked side by side, and he couldn't help but feel more than relieved that they were out of that environment. The dragon slayer found it hard to admit but he actually felt incredibly awkward sitting with Levy around a bunch of romantic couples. Even at that moment he felt Levy's eyes on her, and he wanted to look at how she looked in her small white dress and how her blue hair bounced while she walked. What was happening?

"Where are we going?" Levy asked, and Gajeel looked at her. Her face was so pure and innocent; it made him feel wrong for just being in her presence. He felt like he dirtied up her perfect aura that she was emitting. The question she asked almost pulled him to a stop as they walked aimlessly down the street that was still lit up by the sun getting itself ready to set. Where were they going? He was so desperate to leave he didn't even think of somewhere to go.

"Uhm. My house, I guess we can have a drink and talk about training" Yeah that would do. He hoped Lily wouldn't be hostile towards her though.

"I-I don't drink." Gajeel looked back to her now embarrassed face that was now focused on her shoes like they were the most interesting thing in the world. He felt that familiar tug on the corners of his mouth as he had felt an alarming amount of times throughout the week, from the day she began to walk to school with him or her reactions to his teasing in class. It was always been this feeling, this same happy smile.

"I don't mean alcohol, ya Shrimp!" He laughed almost missing his footing as they made a turn that was just around the block from his house. Gajeel felt a small turn in his stomach, sending something running through his veins, it surprised him entirely... was he nervous?

"Oh, uhm alright" The blue haired mage said meekly, still staring at her shoes as she walked; he was just surprised she hadn't walked into anything yet. He found her interesting, which made him question himself a little further. Never in his life had he ever talked so friendly to someone, even in his first years of life apparently he was violent and possessive towards his things so never spoke to anyone his age in school even if they tried to force him.

Why this girl seemed to be an exception to him was a mystery, and in some ways it was an even bigger mystery of why she actually spoke to him as well. It couldn't be just the sole thing that she spoke to him, because Juvia did as well, but he didn't feel like spending and excessive amount of time with her. Sure she was strong and pretty badass when she could be but that didn't seem to be a reason to hang out with her, which he thought was this whole time.

Gajeel spotted his house, looking messier than he'd left it this morning even if it was exactly the same this morning. Paint chipping, wooden beams decaying, over grown front garden, overflowing post cubby. Yep, just like home.

The dragon slayer guided Levy to his house and they both stood in front of his door, he watched as she looked around analysing every part of the house she could see, taking it all in. Gajeel took his gaze from her and slid open the door revealing his front porch flooded with worn out shoes and opened letters that he'd left out with complete lack of energy to put them in the bin. It lead into a hallway with a staircase on the left side and two doors on the right wall and another open doorway at the very end of the hallway leading into a small kitchen.

"Welcome to my humble abode Shorty." He said stepping in and kicking off his shoes and stepping into his house, Levy followed doing the same and sliding the door shut behind her. She repeated the same thing again, looking at everything; probably trying to find something to admire. Like she was doing when he found her looking at that purple flower as if it was the most beautiful thing she had ever taken witness of in her life. However she wouldn't find anything to admire in his pit of a house so she might have a well given up before she started.

"It's nice." She lied, obviously. Levy was the nicest looking thing in his house at the moment. Wait what?

"Yeah, sure if you like the 'garbage bin' look." He laughed, walking into the kitchen to grab a drink for them both. Levy didn't respond but just looked at him as if to say 'take a compliment, geez' kind of look. Gajeel grabbed them both a can of coke from his fridge and threw Levy's to hers who had a small panic attack as she fumbled to grab it.

"So, want to go outside and train?" He asked, the idea popping into his head at that moment didn't seem like a bad one. Levy looked at him perplexed as she snapped her can of coke open.

"Train?" She said with her small mouth on the edge of the can, muffling her words.

"Why not?" He asked, looking out of the kitchen window into his back garden – the only clean place that was part of his house, although now the whole garden was covered in a large gazebo that covered large pieces of fitness equipment and weights. It was perfect, whenever it was hot he was working out in the shade– it was especially perfect when it rained.

"I- I don't think I'm ready..." Levy said blushing and pouting, looking like she was about to be eaten by her own self doubt.

"How do you know if you don't try?" He grinned, ignoring her desperate look to not work out he walked back through the kitchen door and went into the door to his left leading into his back room that had a small coffee table in, two cushions either side and literally _piles _of scrap iron. She would probably question him for it.

"Holy... Gajeel why have you got so much iron?" Yep.

" Because, this guy was selling it all for really cheap and he was just gonna chuck all of it out if I didn't buy it so I bought all o' it and lugged it here" Gajeel said grinning at her shocked face as she scanned through the iron. "I've only eaten 'alf of it though..." He said causing her mouth to open even further. Well he did get it a few months ago and he was a hungry dude.

"Gosh." She said in a whisper as they walked through the room and she dodged the pieces of iron scattered on the floor that had fallen from the piles. Gajeel watched her and laughed as she stood on her tiptoes and raised her arms in the air like she was balancing herself on a thin beam.

He stepped outside and waited for the bookworm to stand alongside him, facing his 'outdoor gym'. He watched her as she looked at the machinery with a sceptical expression on her face. Gajeel knew what she was thinking; the first thought would be 'I shouldn't have agreed to this'.

"Let's start off easy shall we?" Gajeel said stepping a little to face the small mage and bringing his hands up that he held up flat as if to give her a double high-five. She glanced at him in confusion, and for a moment he thought she had raised her hands to _actually_ high-five him. Just how inexperienced was she at hand-to-hand combat? Gajeel sighed while rolling his eyes.

"Punch the palms of my hands." He asked, growing impatient. Levy just looked at him with a vacant expression.

"I don't... I don't want to." She said simply, looking to the side. Gajeel felt two things at that point, confusion as to what girl's emotions were and how to figure them out as well as how cute her face looked when she pouted with embarrassment.

"No backing out now, do it" He said nodding to her, hopefully being reassuring in some way. He felt a small breeze go through his hair and brush his neck. The dragon slayer could even feel that it was becoming colder as the sun set. It was probably a strange sight, two mages stood in a garden with one urging the other to punch them.

Levy stared at Gajeel's open palms, her eyes flicking from one to the other; like she was trying to punch them with her mind. The blue haired mage seemed to cringe at herself as she limply raised a fist and slightly 'punched' his open left palm. Gajeel felt nothing, not even the faintest touch of her fist in his palm. Gajeel bore with her and nodded to her to try again, she only sighed in protest but proceeded to raise the same fist and punch the same open palm slightly harder.

"C'mon shrimp, you're not punching me nearly hard enough! _Punch _me!" He said eagerly, trying to make her enthusiastic about it. Despite growing incredibly impatient he thought she wouldn't be able to take another comment about her not being 'strong' so gave her some time.

This time Levy nodded, her brows furrowed with concentration on his hands. The solid script mage raised both of her fists, and clenched them until her knuckles were white and brought her right fist and with what looked like all the strength she had in her brought it into his left palm, she then pulled it back and did the same with her left hand.

Gajeel could see the energy she was putting in, in a way she reminded him of himself when he was young and wanted to be strong. He was only weak and had small arms and legs, but he wished to be strong so with all his might he punched and kicked at a punching bag he had been given for his birthday, he trained as hard as he could wishing to be strong. That was all that Levy wanted to be, she didn't want to be seen as weak.

"Nice job, you've got potential shorty. By the time we're done for the tournament you'll be strong as hell!" Gajeel grinned, for a second he saw a sparkle in her deep hazel eyes and received a small nod in agreement.

After that she punched the palms of his hands more, and he toured her around the equipment that he had positioned across the grass and let her try them each out one by one, on the exception of a few as it seemed 'inappropriate' to do while wearing a dress. Which Gajeel tried to casually dismiss but he could feel himself becoming embarrassed. Levy didn't do well on any of the machines and struggled a little even with the settings on 10 pounds. It made him want to laugh and tell her how crap she was, but didn't. Even if he was joking, he knew she would take it to heart.

The sun went down completely and after a while they both returned inside, to be greeted by a black cat with a small scar going over his right eye. He looked at Gajeel and purred at him softly, but not approaching him.

"Oh, this is my cat – Lily." Gajeel began, as he kneeled down to pat and stroke his cat on the head who seemed to be having a lovely time in his company. The dragon slayer was just waiting for Lily to speak and scare the life out of Levy. He watched as Lily looked at Gajeel as if asking for permission to speak to his friend, Gajeel just nodded in response and licked his thin lips in anticipation of her response.

"Hello Miss, has Gajeel managed to obtain a girlfriend already?" He smiled, but Gajeel did not. That fucking cat and his stupid presumptions! Gajeel could feel he was embarrassed, he looked at Levy who didn't even know what to do. She was silent from the cat actually speaking to and her cheeks were flushed crimson... opportunity.

"Does the idea of being my girlfriend freak you out that much?" Gajeel said teasingly, curling his lips into a wry grin. Levy couldn't even respond to that either, she just looked down at him as he crouched on the floor, from him to his cat, from his cat to him. Probably deciding what would be wiser to respond to.

"Oh Lily, this is Levy McGarden slash Shrimp or Shorty." Gajeel told Pantherlily, who just nodded wisely like it would help the information absorb. Gajeel looked at the ever so quiet Levy who looked unbelievably adorable with her cheeks splashed in red, her white dress, her small legs; her small hands rose trying to cover the blatant shock... her soft looking lips parted slightly ready to speak.

"W-who is he to call me Shorty? A-and I am not Gajeel's girlfriend... a-and it... uhm" The shrimp stuttered, he could tell she was trying to answer his question which made him laugh at her. As much as he was embarrassed too, there was no way he was letting her know that. He just laughed as she stared at him, giving him evils.

"Gihi, forget it Shrimp" He laughed getting up and dusting his knees off. "I'll walk ya home" Gajeel offered, not wanting a response just because he wanted to walk her home. Something made Gajeel _want _to know she had gotten home safely. Levy opened her mouth to respond but didn't say a word.

"Gajeel, could you pass me a kiwi?" Lily asked, he just rolled his eyes at the cat. Him and his goddamn kiwi obsession.

"Get it yourself" He said, suddenly feeling like a nap.

"Gajeel! You're so mean!" Levy told him and went to grab a kiwi from the bowl, however Lily put a paw on her bare leg.`

"It's fine Levy, I can get it" He said, Gajeel just sighed. Great, freak the girl out even more.  
Gajeel sensed the magic coming from his cat as he transformed in a larger state, his small pair of green shorts enlarged and he became slightly taller than Gajeel. He watched as Levy followed him as his small cat version transformed into a large, even muscular cat. It made him earn his name as Panther in Gajeel's mind.  
Lily took the fruit from the bowl with ease and went to grab and knife to cut it in half. Levy was speechless, and the dragon slayer gathered she wasn't going to get far if he just left her there to comprehend what had just happened.

"C'mon Shorty, starin' at him won't help you understand anymore than you'd like to" He said grabbing her small arm and guiding her towards the door, she broke off her stare on Lily and turned her attention towards him. Gajeel could feel her eyes on him, great she probably thought he was an even weirder freak.

They both left his house in silence and they walked along each other as they did so. Gajeel glanced at her now and again, not that he could see anything other than the top of her head. But he was strangely content enough to just watch her blue curls sway as she walked and the odd time be blown back by a gust of wind.

After a while they both arrived at her house, and both stopped to face each other. It became apparent to Gajeel that he hadn't a clue how to leave. It was like he didn't want to... just who is this girl? Why is she different than anyone else? He could just turn around and leave muttering the word 'bye' but he didn't want to. The mage knew she needed more care than that, she was a fragile glass that needed to be treated kindly and right now she was under training to become strong steel.

"Wait here." Levy said, but before Gajeel got a response she ran through the fence gate and was already in her house. Gajeel just sighed and stared at the door into which she disappeared into. What was that shrimp up to now? He didn't think he would be able to cope with someone that made him so different for a whole year, especially if they were going to meet up out of school and train together. He sighed to himself again, why was he even doing this? He could've gone with Juvia, she doesn't need training and knows how antisocial he is... but that was the thing. He didn't _want _to... not after meeting Levy anyways.

He snapped out of his thoughts as he saw the blue headed mage walk out at an astonishingly slow pace, carrying a large pile of books, bound in all various colours. He just watched as she struggled down the path from her front door to where Gajeel stood, chuckling at her efforts. However he stopped laughing when she offered them to Gajeel.

"What?"

"These are books on magic, and dragon slaying magic, as well as anatomy's of mages and our weakness' and strengths on different types of magics." Levy stated with a smile on her face... this was revenge for making her punch things and work out on machines.

"I can't believe this! Since when has training and books ever gone together?" He asked, outraged. How in hell was he going to manage reading all of them? There were probably at least 25 books that now lay in _his _hands.

"Since always, and no skipping out! I'll be testing you!" Levy smiled and returned into her home with a small wave of her hand. "Oh and thank you for walking me home" The mage said lastly before closing the door behind her.  
Gajeel sighed to himself, and walked home.

_**Sorry about the late update everyone! I've been on work experience and I've been getting no sleep so I've been kind of out of it and distracted so I worked on it bit by bit! Hope you've enjoyed this chapter and hopefully a new one will be out very soon!**_

_**Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate all of the favourites and follows! It makes my day when I see and new review or follower etc! Until next time everyone!**_

_**Next chapter : Tough life.**_


	4. Tough Life

Chapter 4

Tough Life

_Her face was scrunched up and damp and the tears streamed across her face as she lay there in bed. Her sobs were as quiet as she could make them, not that her parents would care if she was crying or not anyways. The only sound young Levy heard was her own breath and the muffled sound of her parents shouting violently at each other._

"_It's not my fault she was born a freak!" Her dad shouted to her mother._

"_Well where are we going to send her to school, the other children have bullied her every single day since she got to that goddamn place!" Her mother replied without a single ounce of concern in her voice._

"_Well she shouldn't have fucking been born a freak in the first place! Neither of us are mages, why the fuck did she turn out like that anyway! I'm the laughing stock of my whole workplace because of her!"_

"_Don't act like you're the only one who's being laughed at! None of the other parents talk to me, I'm alone! I don't know w-what we should do..." Her mum said, breaking down in tears in the end. _

_Levy's cries deepened and the lump grew in her throat as she struggled for breath between her sobs. She couldn't figure out why she had upset them so much. It wasn't her fault, but what was she supposed to do to make them not sad anymore? _

"_I'm sorry, Mama... Papa..."She whispered to them silently not that they would hear her; they never spoke to her anyways. Not unless it was commands. The little mage cried and cried and eventually fell into an exhausted sleep from crying so hard._

The blue haired mage woke, feeling her sweat making her black tank top and baggy pyjama's cling to her skin. She sat up and rubbed her eyes groggily, feeling dried tears in the corners of her eyes. Levy frowned as she remembered her dream that she had just woken up from. She sighed, and rubbed her face as if it would help her wake up and forget about it.

She glanced at her alarm clock that glared at her with a bright red amongst the pitch black of the room. 7:10am. She sighed, there was no point in going back to sleep now.  
Levy shook out the memories of her dream and climbed out of bed silently, trying not to let the floorboards underneath her small feet creak. She wouldn't want to wake up her parents, and make them feel more distress.

Levy slumped down the stairs and made herself breakfast, it was only when she sat down onto the wooden chair around her dining table that she felt her muscles ache. It had been a month since she had began life at Fairy Tail high, and a month since she began training for the end of year tournament with Gajeel. She had to admit that her body ached from all of the work, she had punched the palms of Gajeel's fists countless times, she stretched, kicked, ran, did push-ups, sit-ups, crunches over time he had made attack a dummy with all of her spells that she knew all one after another. Which surprisingly wore her out the most. She had never felt so tired out in her life, and her body ached everyday with effort. She was envious of Gajeel, the only training he ever received that he didn't already do was reading the books Levy gave him – it was true he despised books but it still didn't require any effort really, not to Levy.

Levy dumped her empty cereal bowl into the sink and turned the kettle on, making her way upstairs to get changed, but she stopped halfway up the stairs when she heard a loud thudding on her front door. Levy glared at it, slightly scared to approach the door. Then she sighed to herself, realising it was probably Gajeel again. By again, she meant a few times in the past month he had shown up at a stupidly early time and forced her to go out and run three miles. Although... usually he was a little earlier. She scoffed to herself as she made her way towards the door, he probably slept in.

Levy slid open her front door and smiled, expecting Gajeel to be there holding a pair of sweats and an evil grin on his face. However this time she was wrong. A man around Gajeel's height stood there with an expressionless face, he was pale and had a strip of red hair on his head that was slicked back, with a matching red goatee. His pale skin stood out beneath his red shirt and black jeans. He stood next to another man, his skin was much darker and reminded Levy of a monster. He wore armour like clothes which had a symbol on... Grimoire Heart University. They had an awful reputation among other schools and Universities for mages and also had a habit of picking on students from other schools.

Levy tried to slam the door shut but the first man put his foot in the space between the door and the frame before she could close it. He pushed it open and grabbed Levy's small arm pulling her through the door. She struggled and tried to pull away but his grip was tight.

"What do you want?" Levy shouted kicking, but he wouldn't let her say any more and covered her mouth with his hand. The mage protested and kicked her legs but it wasn't any good, her physical strength still wasn't good enough and the way he had a grip on her she couldn't summon any word. He flung her over his shoulder with a nauseating grin on his face, his hand fell from her mouth but it didn't matter anymore. He carried her over to a van and threw her in, pain shot through her head and her back as the metal floor of the van hit her skin. She cried out in pain and tried to scream as loud as she could but the man leaned closer with a cloth in his hand. Levy brought her hands forward as soon as she could and screamed.

"Fire!" The word fire appeared burning with the flames that the word itself expressed. It flung towards the man and he jumped out of the van and flung himself to the ground as his clothes burnt with Levy's hot flames. She tried to jump out of the van but the other man came into view holding a katana forcing her back into the van.

"You bitch!" The man exclaimed picking up the dropped cloth and shoving it into Levy's face, she struggled but she felt her whole body grow weak and her limbs began to fail her. Until finally her eyelids grew tired and unbelievably heavy, she tried to fight it but they closed. Her whole world turned dark.

_**About ten minutes later...**_

It was the third time. He threw a fourth rock at her small window but it didn't work, either she was a really heavy sleeper or she had gone on a run herself; he knew neither of them were possible. Levy the last four times she hadn't come to the door when he had knocked had woken up straight away with one rock banging on her window, and she hated the morning runs he made her go on.

His iron heart leapt into his throat, something was wrong. Gajeel ran to her door and pulled it open – it was unlocked... he ran quickly through all of the doors into Levy's unfamiliar house. Empty. Empty Kitchen, Living room and dining room. Gajeel ran into the hall way grabbing the banister to swing himself onto the stairs as he ran as fast as he could. Empty. Two bedrooms and the bathroom, nothing. Where were her parents?

Gajeel reached into his pocket while stood on the landing of Levy's house, trying to get to his contacts. He then cursed himself for remembering he hadn't had the guts to ask Levy for her phone number yet, and that was all he could think of right now. The dragon slayer ran downstairs and through the front door closing it behind him. He paced back and forth wondering what to do, until he smelt something.  
He followed the smell that led him out of her front garden onto the road, the smell was almost gone but it was there... smoke... something like smoke or ash. Like fire had been there.

A million thoughts rushed through his head, he knew Levy had a fire attack... someone's been here. He smelt them, mixed in with the smoke. Someone had taken Levy.

Gajeel ran to the house next to Levy's and knocked quickly, desperate for some kind of guidance to who had taken her. After a few endless seconds the door opened and a small old woman stood at the door, Gajeel sighed, great use this woman would be.

"Do you know your neighbour's daughter Levy?" Gajeel asked in a rush.

"Why, yes I do. I saw her leaving with some awfully rude men this morning." The woman said slowly. Gajeel absorbed the information... men... so there was more than one person and they were all guys. Thank god this woman saw them.

"Yeah, well they aren't good guys. Do you have any idea about who they were?" Gajeel asked roughly, not caring for the woman at that moment in time. He just needed to hurry up and help her.

"I have no idea my boy, although they had this sign on their van. I'm not completely sure... but I believe it was from one of those mage schools." That was all Gajeel needed to hear to know who it was. Everyone knew about Grimoire Heart University, picking on younger mages that were weaker than them just for the fun of it. Their Head Teacher didn't even care, he was the infamous Purehito. He let his student mages run amuck and barely gave them an education. He practically encouraged his students to do bad things.

Gajeel nodded to the lady and ran off down the road, straight towards their school. Both Levy and him would be finishing their run by now if he had come earlier today... she would have been alright. Gajeel shook the thoughts from his head and focused on getting to where he needed to go. Which he sadly knew all too well.

Being a part of Phantom Lord you would learn of all other schools and their reputations, all just to know the best way to beat them whenever they had to go up against them in inter-school competitions. Gajeel admitted now that it wasn't the best school ever, and much preferred to be at Fairy Tail high. They weren't nearly as self centred or conscious about winning all the time, they were there to have a good time with their friends; which he liked.

Gajeel ran past some people on their way to Grimoire Heart early, running even faster now he sped past them and in through the school gates and continuing into the building itself. It was painted a dark colour with accents of red, with their school logo painted twice on either side of the centre entrance of the school. It wasn't the most pleasant looking school ever...

He ran inside and faced a woman sat at the reception desk, she had black hair that was perfectly straight, and a smart black and white uniform with a cross necklace. She typed away on a small computer and didn't acknowledge Gajeel standing there. He rolled his eyes.

"You seen some guys 'ere with a small girl with blue hair?" He demanded laying his hand down onto the desk. She finally looked at him, but didn't reply. The woman only looked at him, analysing. The dragon slayer watched as her eyes moved from his hair to his waist and back.

"You're not from this University. I don't provide anyone out of this place with inside information." She stated, going back to her ever so obnoxious typing. Gajeel sighed, he didn't have time for this. Levy was somewhere with god knows how many guys that used magic. He desperately needed to find her, his stomach did back flips just thinking about her being in that situation... but since when had he grown to care for her so much?

"Look she's in danger just tell me." Gajeel said growing impatient, if she didn't answer he would beat the living shit out of her until she did. The woman went to open her mouth but she hesitated as she looked worryingly at two men behind Gajeel. He followed her gaze to two men walking in through the entrance Gajeel had just been through. He opened his ears for something, _anything._

"We should beat the crap out of her first, then leave her naked." One said, Gajeel's eyes widened at how casually he was saying such a thing. Then again it was probably normal in such a school, he just hoped to god it wasn't Levy.

"Her boobs are small anyways, what's the point? Plus she hasn't got any major curves! I just wanna beat the crap outta her for setting fire to my favourite shirt!" The man explained, using hand gestures as he went on. That was all Gajeel needed to hear to know it was those two, he could smell Levy's fire before plus not to bother the shrimp but... they were right when saying she had small boobs and no figure. Not that Gajeel had anything against tha- Gajeel shook his head. Not really the time to be thinking about her figure.  
The woman at the desk obviously heard them too and grabbed on to the back of Gajeel's jumper, making him jolt backwards after he began to make his way to follow the two guys.

"Stop it, you aren't allowed any further." She said looking at him with desperation for him not to go. He just glanced at her and then grabbed her wrist removing it roughly from his shirt. She didn't do anything to stop him from then and instead slowly backed into her seat where she watched him walk away.

Gajeel wasn't going to let anyone stop him from finding Levy and making sure she was safe – just hearing them speak about his shrimp... or rather the shrimp like that it made him want to beat the crap out of them right there and then however that way he would have to look for Levy himself, which would take a while in such a large school. So he followed closely behind the two who were still walking through the hallway of the school, talking and laughing together. Making Gajeel feel sick. He received a few glances from passing students, most likely because he wasn't wearing their school uniform and was just casually walking around.

The two made a sharp left through double doors, leading into a courtyard. Gajeel waited a little before following them through the doors, to just barely catch them going through a small opening in the ground.

_How could something so obvious be lying around in a school, was the school so evil they encouraged this kind of thing?_

The dragon slayer followed them up and waited by the opening for a moment until climbing in himself – there wasn't much room but there was a metal iron ladder that slightly tempted Gajeel's appetite. He quickly shook the thought out of his head and made his way down the ladder, listening out for any sound of the other two he was following.

When he reached the bottom there was a small hallway with walls that were a dark grey colour with a matching blank floor, lit up by small lacrima. He followed it, smelling the two scum all too strongly as he walked. After a few moments he began to hear them talking... but not to one another. They were talking to her, they were talking to Levy.

"You're tiny, d'ya ever notice that? I can barely see you from up here." One of them said, it echoing through the hallway. He wanted to hit them, he wanted to make them bleed all over and pay for what they were planning to do. He sprinted faster hurrying and get to her.

"Nice pyjamas little one, although I can't help but wonder what that flat chest would look like if you weren't wearing them." That was it. He ran as fast as he could to make it to Levy.  
Gajeel bolted through the door his only thoughts were filled with rage and hatred, they both turned around to face him as he walked into the room he didn't even hesitate to transform his hand into an iron fist and plant it into one of the men.

"Gajeel!?" Levy shouted through the tape that covered her mouth, which sounded muffled from the covering. He glanced for a split second shocked by what he saw, she was tied up completely, her hands were tied together behind her back which were attached to her tied feet as well; making her incapable of moving at all. She was on her side and was looking at them, there was tears forming in the corner of her eyes. These two would pay for that.

He forced his iron pillar into the other guy so they were both winded, the other guy was just recovering, but Gajeel didn't give him any time. He pulled his iron club back into his fist hardening it into iron and charged into him, aiming for his face. It made impact for a moment but he grasped Gajeel's wrist moving it from his face, then bringing his hand up infront of him – Gajeel could sense him going to use his magic so he moved out of the way from his hand a split second before eggs began to project in a vast amount from his hand.

"Eggs?" Gajeel said to himself, what an odd magic. The eggs hit the grey wall and smashed, decorating the wall in a mix of egg and eggshell. The other guy had recovered and Gajeel now had them both heading his way, one pulled out a katana and made his way towards Gajeel raising it up; the other raised his hand. Gajeel took a glance at Levy who was staring at them with obvious concern for Gajeel in her eyes, she looked so desperate to do something and to help. However this was Gajeel's fight. Gajeel took a deep breath in.

"Iron dragon's roar!" He shouted as a tornado of iron shards were sent flying from his open mouth towards the two opponents. They both jumped sideways, the attack slightly catching their sides. One recovered quickly and brought his katana in front of him, stumbling slightly from Gajeel's attack.

"Slash!" He said swinging his sword from a distance, Gajeel didn't see anything coming from the sword... did his attack fail? Gajeel soon found out as his side received a cut like it had been slashed by a sword. Gajeel held the wound and grunted in pain, So that's what his magic was, but how exactly had he done it? He forgot about the thought and pushed on to defeat them despite the pain in his side that was pulsing.

Both had recovered now although the one who used egg magic looked pretty worn out, he was still up and looked pissed off as well. Gajeel looked at Levy for a moment, who still looked at him with concerned eyes. Fucking bastards, doing that to such an innocent girl, it made Gajeel pissed off even more. However he still flinched under the pain of the cuts he had received, but it wouldn't stop him.

The monster looking guy brought his katana forward again, this time he prepared for it. Gajeel summoned his iron scales, they covered his body shining against the lacrima lights that were dotted around the room.

"Slash, Slash!" He sent two towards Gajeel from only metres away, he didn't have time to move so brought his arms in front of his head and the top of his chest; preparing for the impact. The attack came through the air, and collided with the scales of Gajeel's arms. He flinched and was shocked at the damage he was managing to do to him.

"He's cutting through my scales like they're nothing!" He muttered to himself as he sent more of the slashes his way. He could feel them cutting down his scales more and more, until he began to become desperate for him to stop. At that moment the slashes did stop and Gajeel slowly lowered his hands, looking to the man infront of him with an irritating grin on his face.

"STAB!" He said bringing his sword to his side and thrusting it forwards. Gajeel was still recovering from the slashes his scales had received when he felt a searing pain in his left side. It knocked him back, the pain was so unbelievable Gajeel lost the power to keep his iron scales so they broke from his body as he collapsed onto the hard floor.

"Ga-!" Levy tried to shout out before Gajeel heard a small squeal come from where she was. He would murder them both, if that's what it took.

She felt the pain, not just the pain that seared through her torso from the immensely hard kick she just received into her ribs by the boot of one of them but the pain for Gajeel. Levy hated it, watching Gajeel fight by himself and her sat there being useless. If only she had been stronger, she wouldn't have gotten into this and Gajeel wouldn't have to be in this horrible situation that he was in. Levy could see the blood staining his school shirt and the odd spot of flesh showing through his torn shirt and trousers. It made her want to cry, however it was definitely not the time to be even weaker than she already was, so she held them back –trying to be strong for Gajeel.

Levy watched as he continued to fight, throwing punches and hearing shouts of his attacks with only the enemies continuously receiving them and recovering to fight back. She watched as all three came to a standstill, breathing in and out heavily with effort looking intensely at each other as they did so.  
Gajeel was the first to attack once again, forming his right hand into an iron club and forcing it towards the brown haired mage.

The bluenette gasped as he pulled his katana from his side forward and forced it into the iron club. Levy looked to Gajeel whose expression was concentrated and ever so pissed off at the same time. He held onto his iron club with his right hand holding it steadily. The mage with red hair ran towards Gajeel preparing to attack before he removed his left hand and proceeded to knock him away with his iron sword.

"Give it up, Fairy. You'll lose to Grimoire Heart, you're no match. That's just how you school's are." He said making effort to push him sword deeper into the iron. The dragon slayer only flinched at the pain and didn't listen to the words – Levy knew he wouldn't. Gajeel wasn't one to be told what to do, especially if you were his enemy.

"You know, if I were still in Phantom Lord then I might have accepted it by now; I would've walked away and came back when I was ten times stronger to defeat you more easily. However, I'm a Fairy Tail High School mage." Gajeel said burying his blood red eyes into the enemies mind as he spoke, Levy could feel the tears just dying to escape the corner of her eyes. "I won't give up this easily!" Gajeel began to shout. "I WON'T LOSE DAMMIT." Gajeel broke off the conversation and Levy watched as his iron club shattered, Levy panicked however she saw Gajeel's reformed arm again and the shock on the enemies face. He was turning it around now.

Gajeel pulled his arm up and Levy could feel the magic power he was summoning to his arm, by this time the other man had recovered and was edging towards his friend. They smirked at him, and must have been too self confident to even notice the amount of magic he was putting into his next attack.

He brought both of his hands above his head and Levy could only attempt to comprehend what was happening as a light glowed from his hands as metal shot up from his hands. The two members of Grimoire Heart could only watch with shock as he brought down the sword.

"Karma demon! Iron dragon god sword!" Gajeel cried out as he brought it down on the two and as it made impact the whole room filled with dust and Levy had to hold her eyes shut tight to protect her eyes from the flying debris. She waited for the dust to settle after only a minute until she gingerly opened her eyes to see the dust was landing onto the floor and she could see only Gajeel standing.

It was over.

It was finally over.

She woke up with the familiar smell of home filling her senses. For a moment she had forgotten everything that had happened. Levy was grateful for that one small moment that she forgot, however the memories soon came flooding back through her mind.  
Her eyes shot open and she was faced with the wall that her bed was pushed against. Levy sat up quickly, noticing her hands were free and her legs were stretched out at last. She went to rub her wrists but saw they were bandaged up at where the rope as rough as a cat's tongue had cut into her soft skin.

Slowly, she climbed out of bed setting her bare feet down onto the wooden floor. Levy ignored the weak feeling spreading throughout her and pressed on. As she looked in the standing mirror she analysed herself. She was still in pyjamas and her feet had also been bandaged, although the plaster that was placed on a slant onto her forehead was new. She didn't remember getting hit in the head.

The blue haired mage grabbed the banister as she walked down the stairs, her thoughts were only on Gajeel now. What would she do if he was severely hurt? What if he was in hospital, despite winning against those horrid mages – if you could call such people that – he was still hurt.  
Levy stopped at the bottom of the stairs and leaned against the wall, trying to focus her vision.  
She stumbled over into her living room and went to fall into the couch cushions.

"Ow! Freakin' hell!" A rough voice came from beneath her, it woke Levy completely up. Her body jolted up and her eyes were open wide. She turned to face what she had just sat on.

Gajeel.

"Why are you sleeping on my couch?" She said with surprise, but it was amazing at how much relief she felt that he was here and okay. She was unsure why but, tears streamed from her eyes down her face.  
It was unclear as the tears clouded her view but she saw him prop himself up with a groan of effort and wipe dried sleep out of his eyes.  
He looked up at her and widened his eyes.

"Why are you crying Shrimp?" He asked gruffly, standing up to look down at her. It was the first time he had been so close to her.

"I guess I'm just really glad you're here and well." Levy replied smiling up to him whilst the tears still silently fell from her hazel eyes. It was true, it surprised her a lot but the worry that she was overcome with about his well being was unreal. She hadn't realised just how much she was concerned for him, things had changed.

Levy couldn't see it through her tears but Gajeel was well and truly blushing by this point.

"Whatever, you should rest you look unsteady." She nodded to him and brushed her damp cheeks dry with the back of her hand.

"Thank you, Gajeel."

_**Right. I know I've murdered myself a few times so I guess you can all do the same because I deserve it for being this late on a new chapter. I really do wish I had written it sooner so I sincerely apologise for not updating sooner! **_

_***Rips sensei honorific from mental image* I no longer deserve this! **_

_**Despite this, please look forward to the next chapter! Review, follow and favourite if you like too! **_


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